The Trial of the Chicago 7

D: Aaron Sorkin

Netflix / Paramount / Dreamworks / Cross Creek / ShivHans (Stuart M. Besser, Matt Jackson, Marc Platt & Tyler Thompson)

US 🇺🇸 2020

130 mins

Drama

W: Aaron Sorkin

DP: Phedon Papamichael

Ed: Alan Baumgarten

Mus: Daniel Pemberton

Eddie Redmayne (Tom Hayden), Sacha Baron Cohen (Abbie Hoffman), Alex Sharp (Rennie Davis), Jeremy Strong (Jerry Rubin), John Carroll Lynch (David Dellinger), Mark Rylance (William Kunstler), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Richard Schultz), Frank Langella (Judge Julius Hoffman)

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, making his directorial debut, assembles a powerhouse cast for this solid courtroom drama surrounding the real-life events of a Vietnam War protest that escalated into civil disruption and violence in 1968.

The ringleaders of the protest all sit in the same trial, which has been fiddled from the offset with a corrupt judge, jury tampering and manipulation of information for a swift guilty verdict.

The story utilises a non-linear narrative so the actual truth unfolds as the trial progresses, and though it doesn’t really provide any in-depth insights into the events, it still makes for a compelling viewing experience, helped by a cast of superb performances and sharp dialogue from the screenwriter who never fails to deliver.

8/10